EU Nations to Decide on Moving 2 Key Agencies Out of Britain

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union nations are making their last-moment pitches for who should get to host two key EU agencies that are due to leave Britain in 2019 because of Brexit.

EU ministers headed into several rounds of voting on Monday to decide where to move the London-based European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority.

Even though rules were set up to make it a fair decision, the process has turned into a deeply political contest.

Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra said that “in the end it is a very strategic game of chess.” He added that beyond bartering, “Every now and then in politics, I hope that content can be decisive.”

The EMA is responsible for the evaluation, supervision and monitoring of medicines while the EBA monitors the banking sector.